News

By Brandi Hart, McKinney Courier-Gazette Aaron Whitaker and his teenage daughter had only $36 and a few gallons of gas last year when they checked into a bunk-bed room at the Samaritan Inn, Collin County’s only homeless shelter. Aaron Whitaker carries daughter Guyler Easter, 16, into their new home at North Texas Gateway Apartments in McKinney. Three families that were formerly living in Collin County’s only homeless shelter, the Samaritan Inn, have moved into a home of their own in the new Gateway Apartments that are being managed by...

Collin County citizens expand the Samaritan Inn’s mission Dallas Morning News Congratulations. You did it. When the ribbon is cut on the new Gateway Apartments across from the Samaritan Inn on Wednesday, the cheers and applause is for you, the entire community of Collin County. Sure, there were some major donors behind the transitional housing built by the county’s only homeless shelter. Yes, the board and staff of the Inn deserve a huge amount of credit for expanding their mission to help those people down on their luck with a...

Two years can seem like an eternity. It was that long ago, in March of 2006, when I bemoaned the resistance that some business types put up against a plan to build apartments for poor residents in downtown Dallas. Not only are the high-rise apartments being built and prepared to open next year on Akard Street, but the fuss has subsided. And the city now has a business-minded mayor who stood up last week to call for more compassion for our most vulnerable residents, including the homeless. Mayor Tom Leppert’s remarks came a day before...

By JAKE BATSELL / The Dallas Morning News McKINNEY – Aaron Whitaker and his teenage daughter had only $36 and a few gallons of gas last year when they checked into a bunk-bed room at the Samaritan Inn, Collin County’s only homeless shelter. Aaron Whitaker carries daughter Guyler Easter, 16, into their new home at North Texas Gateway Apartments in McKinney. On Friday, Mr. Whitaker carried his daughter on a triumphant piggyback ride into their brand-new apartment, where 16-year-old Guyler Easter hangs out in her own room decorated with...

Ed Housewright writes about Collin County issues. His column appears every other Sunday. Stephen Thorpe will be moving into an apartment soon, and he can’t wait. “I’m getting more excited by the minute,” he said. Why all the anticipation? Mr. Thorpe now lives at the Samaritan Inn, a homeless shelter in McKinney, and he’s ready to get his own place. But he doesn’t have enough money to afford the rent at most places. Enter the Gateway Apartments. The 20-unit complex opens next month as a project of the...

Barbara Walch A single mother of three loses her job and can no longer pay her rent. A pregnant 18-year-old is told she is no longer welcome in her family’s home. A high-tech executive loses his house after months of unemployment. These are all unfortunate circumstances that can lead to despair in someone’s life. In the absence of family and friends who can help, where can someone in crisis turn, especially individuals and even entire families who suddenly find themselves without a home? The answer: The Samaritan Inn. “We were founded in 1984...

Besides Groundhog Day and Valentine’s Day, February is famous for Highland Park United Methodist Church’s annual Home on the Lawn project. For the fifth time in as many years, Carpenters for Christ will partner with SMU and Habitat for Humanity to build homes for the working poor. This year is special. Not just one, but two homes will be constructed simultaneously, across the street from each other and completed in a two-week “blitz build.” Walls rise on Saturday, February 17, and work continues each Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday...

Knowing more about the Samaritan Inn’s success makes you want to get involved, MICHAEL LANDAUER says View on the DallasNews.com By now, you’ve heard of the Samaritan Inn. It’s one of Collin County’s most impressive success stories. It started in 1984 as a group project of several community leaders, and it barely survived for years in a rundown building in East McKinney. I remember the tour I took in 2001, a very quick circle around a cluttered set of darkened hallways. Nowadays, in the new, state-of-the-art shelter,...

The Samaritan Inn, located in McKinney, is the only homeless shelter in Collin County and is regularly full. One reason for homelessness in our county is the high cost of housing. In an effort to assist those people who are living in the shelter and working full time but still can not leave, because they are unable to afford market value rents; the North Texas Gateway apartments are being built. The Gateway apartments will be a complex consisting of twenty units- ten one bedroom and ten two bedrooms. They will be located directly across the...

Laptop Gift to Dallas CASA Kids Provides New Educational Opportunities Ten children who have been removed from their homes due to abuse or neglect and placed in protective care in Dallas have a brighter future today thanks to the generous donation of ten new Dell laptop computers from Sparky’s Kids. Based in Dallas, and founded by Marc A Sparks, Sparky’s Kids (www.sparkyskids.com) is dedicated to providing new, high quality computers to less fortunate children who desire to learn, yet are financially disadvantaged. Sparky’s Kids has donated...